Strain, Repair, Recover better: The Earthquake analogy
When you feel motivated to reach your goals, it can be tempting to skip rest days under the myth that more is better, but that's not how progress in strength training occurs.
Contrary to popular belief, your body doesn't build muscle while you're exercising. It's during the recovery phase that your muscles actually grow stronger. This is a crucial aspect of strength training that often goes unnoticed. So, the next time you're not exercising, remember that your body is still hard at work, repairing and strengthening your muscles.
When you push your body during exercise, you strain its system. You create micro-tears in your muscles and microbreaks in your bones. These small injuries make being sore the day after a workout uncomfortable. Your whole body is full of accumulated microdamages. It is when your body repairs the damages that your tissues strengthen.
I liken this process to a city recovering from an earthquake. Imagine your muscles and bones as buildings in a city. When you exercise, you stress your tissues, causing an earthquake.
The Strain: You engaged in a new, challenging, strength-building exercise. You induced an earthquake. Your buildings are now cracked, crumbled, or damaged, and broken glass is everywhere.
The Repair: Now, for the city to repair itself, it needs time, building materials, and workers/energy. And guess what? You are the mayor of this city, making all the decisions. You get to direct resources and set timelines. Your actions directly influence the speed and effectiveness of the recovery process.
Your building materials are your protein. Consume lots of protein as it is broken down into amino acids and then built into your own tissues.
Your workers are your carbohydrates and fat. The body breaks down these macronutrients into energy and uses it to repair your tissues.
Time is the literal time and rest you put between workouts. You will continuously damage your tissues without giving your body time to recover after working out. You will not make the progress you are after, and you risk injury.
Progress: Just like in a city, if you build the buildings the same as before, they may crumble under a future earthquake of the same magnitude. But if you build them stronger, they will withstand the same strain. Similarly, the body will build stronger muscles and denser bones so that the same stimulus won't cause the same damage. That’s why strength training is recommended for sarcopenia and osteopenia/osteoporosis. That's also why the same workout won't make you sore if you do it consistently without progression. You also won't make bone or muscle gains if you do not make your workout load more intense. But here's the exciting part: this process is a good thing! If you progressively overload your body and give it what it needs to recover, you will be amazed by what it can adapt to do! Your body is capable of incredible strength and resilience, and by understanding and implementing these recovery strategies, you can unlock its full potential.
